3: A program ahead of its time

She forcefully suppressed the urge to immediately clean house; now was not the time to alert the enemy. The afternoon's bidding conference was the top priority.

Three PM.

New City Project Bidding Conference.

Bai Qianqian personally oversaw the event, lowering the bid by 3.2 percentage points at the last minute based on intelligence.

When the results were announced, Bais Technology won the bid by a narrow margin.

The representative from Hongyuan Technology instantly turned ashen-faced... Sitting in the car returning to the company, Bai Qianqian looked out the window.

There was no joy on her face, only icy coldness.

The intelligence was completely accurate.

The authenticity of that list was beyond doubt.

She picked up her phone and quickly drafted a message to her trusted aide.

"Notify all department managers and above on the list: an emergency meeting in Conference Room One in half an hour. No absences allowed."

"The head of the Security Department and the HR Director are to come to my office immediately and wait for me."

Upon returning to the company, Bai Qianqian walked directly into Conference Room One.

The conference room was full of people, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

Bai Qianqian walked to the head seat, her gaze sweeping across the room, lingering slightly on the faces of those thirteen people.

"Everyone, we've secured the New City Project."

A stir went through the audience, quickly followed by applause.

Bai Qianqian waved her hand to quiet them.

Her tone shifted, becoming heavy.

"Securing this project was not easy."

"Bais Technology wouldn't be where it is today without the efforts of every single person here, and the company has never treated anyone unfairly."

Her words sounded like affirmation, but the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.

"However."

Bai Qianqian's voice suddenly turned cold, her gaze sweeping across the room like ice.

"If anyone believes that Bais Technology's stage is for those who betray us from within and line their own pockets, then they are gravely mistaken!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the conference room door was pushed open.

More than a dozen security personnel streamed into the conference room, followed by the HR Director and her entire department.

Inside the conference room, the expressions of the executives subtly changed, knowing that something significant was about to happen.

Especially those thirteen people, their faces instantly turned pale... Bai Qianqian no longer looked at them, waving her hand dismissively.

"Take away the people on the list. Before the police arrive, gather them and keep them under unified supervision."

"Immediately seal off their office belongings, freeze all their permissions, and retrieve all communication records."

"Move quickly, and maintain secrecy..."

The entire conference room was silent; everyone was stunned by this sudden storm.

The thirteen people looked ashen, and under the stern gaze of the security personnel, they were dejectedly led out of the conference room.

Bais Technology's swift and decisive internal purge was like a bombshell dropped into a calm lake, its impact rapidly sweeping across the entire tech industry.

The industry was shaken.

The news could not be completely contained.

Thirteen middle and high-level managers, including three veteran elders, were simultaneously taken in for investigation on the same day.

Such an event is extremely rare and explosive even in the entire business world.

All sorts of rumors and speculations instantly spread like wildfire across major social media platforms, financial forums, and industry chat groups.

"Have you heard? There's been a massive earthquake at Bais Technology!"

"Thirteen executives were taken down in one go, all said to be commercial spies!"

"My goodness, which company is so ruthless... planting so many people in Bai's?"

"Not just one company; the companies behind the names on the list are varied: Hongyuan, Kexin, Longteng..."

"Bai Qianqian's methods are too ruthless."

"Truly a newborn calf not afraid of tigers."

"This is called scraping poison from the bone; if not cleaned up, Bais Technology's core secrets would be completely hollowed out."

The nerves of the giant enterprises in the entire tech industry tensed up, and they all began internal self-inspections.

For a time, there was widespread alarm.

Bais Technology, through a bloody self-purification, declared its stance on protecting core secrets to the outside world.

At the same time, it demonstrated the iron fist and boldness of its new generation leader.

After this battle,

Bai Qianqian not only eliminated a huge internal hidden danger, ensured the smooth progress of the New City Project, but also greatly enhanced her personal prestige, truly establishing her unshakeable position in Bais Technology... He Ming looked at the balance in his bank account, an unprecedented joyful smile appearing on his face.

Eleven million!

This was undoubtedly a huge sum of money.

For an ordinary family, even without eating or drinking, it would take at least ten or even decades to save a million.

And he, with just two phone calls, earned money that ordinary people couldn't earn in several lifetimes.

This feeling of possessing power intoxicated He Ming.

Hangzhou, Xintong Branch.

Zhao Kun was watering a potted plant when his private encrypted phone on the desk suddenly vibrated.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth; business had arrived.

As an ordinary middle-level manager at the Xintong branch, his monthly salary was only around ten thousand.

In a first-tier city like Hangzhou, he could only barely get by; living comfortably was naturally impossible.

For this, Zhao Kun had secretly laid several hidden lines that could bring him immense wealth.

"Hello?"

"Manager Zhao."

"Help me find all call recordings of Bai Qianqian, the new president of Bais Technology, from the afternoon of the New City Project bidding conference."

Zhao Kun's breathing paused for a second.

He did have the authority, but he had never tried to query private information involving top-tier companies.

If he were caught, he would definitely go to jail.

"I can't bear the consequences..."

"One and a half million USD. I'll transfer seven hundred and fifty thousand USD to your overseas account first. The remaining balance will be settled immediately once you get the recordings."

One and a half million USD!

This figure hit Zhao Kun's heart like a heavy hammer.

He was silent for a moment, and eventually, greed triumphed over caution.

"Send the target information to my encrypted email. I need to see the money first."

"Ten minutes."

The call ended.

Zhao Kun sat back in his chair, his breathing gradually becoming rapid.

Ten minutes later, he skillfully logged into an overseas bank account.

Seven hundred and fifty thousand USD had just been deposited.

At the same time, he received a concise email in his encrypted mailbox, containing only Bai Qianqian's name and public identity information.

Zhao Kun no longer hesitated, locked the office door, and his entire demeanor changed, like a surgeon preparing for a delicate operation.

He quickly logged into the company's internal advanced customer information support system.

He entered a high-level key and, under the pretext of technical security verification, entered Bai Qianqian's information.

The system returned several numbers, and he instantly locked onto the entry marked [Highest Privacy Protection Level].

Zhao Kun took a deep breath, switching to the core network voice quality spot check platform with higher permissions.

He entered Bai Qianqian's private number, precisely setting the time window to the day of the bidding conference.

A list of query results popped up; there weren't many call records.

His gaze swept over them like a hawk, finally locking onto a record at the top of the list.

Call time: 10:21:13.

What puzzled Zhao Kun was that the number calling Bai Qianqian only displayed a string of garbled characters.

This was the first time he had seen such a situation.

"That's it."

Zhao Kun's heart pounded; he was almost certain this anomalous call was the key.

He no longer hesitated, moved the mouse, and precisely clicked the "Apply for Call Recording Retrieval" button next to the garbled record.

As soon as he clicked... the content on his monitor screen instantly vanished. The next second, it was completely replaced by a blue, semi-transparent ghost icon.

The cloaked ghost floated silently in the center of the screen, slowly drifting up and down, emitting a cold digital chill.

Zhao Kun was stunned.

"It's over!"

The disaster was far from over.

Zhao Kun subconsciously turned his head to look out the office glass wall; all his colleagues' computer screens in the entire open-plan office area were the same.

"What's going on?"

"A virus?!"

"What the hell, has the server been completely invaded and crashed?!"

"Who is so bold as to dare attack Xintong's servers..."

...The technicians went frantic, but no matter what they did, they couldn't change this interface.

The entire floor instantly plunged into chaotic pandemonium.

Phones couldn't make calls, the network was completely down, all system operations were ineffective, only the ghost icon floated silently on every screen.

One minute later.

The ghost icon disappeared without warning at the same time, and all devices returned to normal.

Network connection restored, server reboot successful.

Only Zhao Kun's computer remained completely dead, its motherboard burnt out and emitting white smoke.

Ten seconds later, a system dialog box with no close option automatically popped up on all terminals on the company's intranet.

[WARNING ONCE]

This was a one-minute warning, as if reminding everyone that everything they had just experienced was not an illusion.

Company executives were completely alarmed. The Technical Director, upon seeing the ghost icon and system logs, immediately realized this was no ordinary hacker attack.

The security department quickly apprehended the ashen-faced Zhao Kun, sealed all equipment, and directly called the police.

Zhao Kun's abuse of power, illegal querying of user privacy, and attempted theft of core commercial secrets were proven with solid evidence, and he was criminally detained that very day.

Xintong Company immediately held a press conference.

It stated Zhao Kun's criminal facts and issued an extremely humble formal apology to Bais Technology.

Zhao Kun's experience was not an isolated incident.

Similar events unfolded consecutively within more than twelve large telecommunication operators across the country.

The specific operational details of the high-level executives involved in the violations varied slightly, but the outcome was identical.

Once their query command touched the call record identified as garbled and they attempted the next step, a destructive digital counterattack would instantly descend.

The internal networks of all involved companies, no matter how high their firewall level, were briefly taken over by the ghost at the same time.

More than twenty executives like Zhao Kun, who had harbored a lucky (stroke of luck) mentality, fell one after another.